


No more waking hours

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Fainting, Gen, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Malcolm Bright Whump, Unconsciousness, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 18:28:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21020282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Dani and Gil find Malcolm passed out in his bedroom. It's bad. Very bad.For the whumptober prompt "unconscious"





	No more waking hours

> "Malcolm!"

Gil couldn't help the scream that came out of him when they found him, saw the state he was in.

They had a new case and Bright hadn't been answering his phone, so Gil had decided to swing by his place with Dani, to check that everything was okay and maybe get him to work with them. Good for him (that way he'd have a distraction and get out of the dark corners of his mind) and good for them, since they solved more cases and quicker, often saving other possible victims and avoiding any further damage.

Besides, Gil couldn't properly think while worrying about Malcolm. He needed to know that the boy was fine, and not trapped in some horrid night terror. Dani didn't mind either, she too worried a bit about their resident profiler. She knew that JT was more worried about the fact that Bright may end up being the one putting the bodies there, or something like that, that her long time partner was convinced that there was too much darkness in him for it to be just a good man...

And Dani understood the concern, but didn't share it. She had seen many shades of evil throughout her life, and Bright didn't look like any of them. He looked broken, fighting always, but not evil. Just broken. So very much. Like in this moment, the very picture of a broken boy. 

Gil was frozen looking at him. How had this happened? What had caused it? Why how who...??

He was on the floor, near the bed, thrown there. It didn't look as if he'd woken up and collapsed, it almost looked like someone had beaten him, the limbs were bent at odd angles, the hair too mussed, it was wrong... And there was a little pool of blood under his mouth and face, a little river or red blood that made its way from where his face was almost to them... His fingertips were bloody too, what on earth had happened? And his skin was so pale. Too pale. Excessively pale.

Gil couldn't move, couldn't think. This looked too much like a crime scene for him to be able to process it. He couldn't have just let Malcolm die. Please, no.

Dani wasn't frozen, though and she quickly made her way to the blonde man, careful not to slip on the blood. She turned him around, part of her hoping that the movement would wake him, cause him to produce some sound, anything, but no. Half of the face was completely covered in blood and the other half was deathly pale. The blood seemed to be coming from his mouth but there were no cuts, no wounds, which probably meant that the blood was coming from the lungs or the stomach. Great

She carefully moved his head, checking it for wounds too, but found nothing. She put the head on her lap and softly tapped the cheeks. Still nothing. At least he had a pulse and was breathing, although it was concerningly shallow.

"Come on, Bright, wake up. Hey, come on, hey, open those eyes for me..."

Gil kept looking at the blood, how lifeless he seemed to be. He'd seen that boy close to death more times than he could count, and yet, it always hurt, it always was as frightening as the previous time. He knew that he had to call for an ambulance but....

Dani took her phone and called without thinking. She'd called so many ambulances for Bright by now, the 911 people probably already knew her voice and who he was calling about.

"I don't know, he's unconscious and not responding... We found him like this, we don't how long... His breathing? Yeah, slow, like really slow and shallow... NO! I mean he sounds like he will stop breathing any time... Yeah the airways are clear, I'm holding his head... Pulse is slow too, and I don't know what exactly happened so please... Two minutes? OK, good! "

She dropped her phone and kept trying to response from Bright, but there was nothing and it was strange. Even when he was asleep, he was always moving, talking even in dreams, alive. Nothing similar to this still doll, with a head that lolled from side to side and heavy limbs. This was not him. This couldn't be him. Gil was having a hard time facing it. 

When the paramedics arrived, Dani had a bit of a hard time letting go. She didn't want to leave him, didn't want him to wake up surrounded by strangers. Because he would wake up and he would be okay, no matter how worried the medics were, no matter anything. She looked at Gil and he snapped out of his frozen state.

"You ride with him, make sure they treat him properly." Dani nodded, almost relieved. When he woke up, at least she would be there to reassure him.

As Gil drove to the hospital behind the ambulance, he tried to gather his thoughts. Maybe it had been the shock. Whenever they were on a case, there was always the possibility of something going wrong and one of them getting hurt, but this... Checking one morning and finding this boy who was almost a son face down, covered in blood... He suddenly remembered the case, and got JT to find some other detectives to handle it. Him and Dani were out of commission, at least for the day. Gil used the drive to calm himself, gather strength.

Dani could have used something like that. The ambulance ride only made her more anxious. She kept waiting for Malcolm to wake up, and the medics kept doing things to him, to react and nothing happened. They put one of those oxygen masks on him and Dani felt herself shiver.

"Is he that bad?"

The medic was clearly not interested in a conversation, so she just nodded and threw a sad look her way. But there was no need to be sad, because he was going to wake up, and he was going to be fine.

Malcolm stayed unconscious and pale the whole ride to the hospital and then he was taken to the emergency room, oxygen mask at all. Dani was told to wait outside and she nearly growled at the nurse. And the Gil looked at her... And she shook her head. No luck yet.

What could have happened? Could a night terror be that bad that you threw up blood and then passed out forever? Had he taken anything to sleep better or to remember better? Did he just collapse from too little food and sleep? Ooh, to have some medical formation, some idea.

Gil called Jessica and she called Ainsley. By the time the doctor came out again they were all there, expectant, together hoping to hear the good news. That he'd woken up, that he would be fine.

No such luck.

"He's in a comatose state. We aren't sure what caused it, but we have some ideas and are running some tests."

"Can we see him?"

"Only one at a time."

He hadn't woken up yet, but at least they had cleaned his face and taken off the oxygen mask, replaced by a nasal cannula.

"Coma? He's in a coma? What did you do to him?" Jessica threw herself at Gil and he let her punch him in the chest, eyes teary. Maybe she was right and this was somehow his fault. Maybe he needed to be punched as much as Jessica needed an outlet for her sorrow and fear.

"It was you who found him?" Ainsley asked Dani, who nodded.

"We didn't see any odd bottles or chemicals lying around. I honestly don't know what it can be."

They look at him on the other side of the glass, lying in bed, still, too still. This should be a good thing, Malcolm finally getting the rest he needs but no. He's just.... Slipping away. Getting farther.

He means different things for all of them. For Jessica he is the one person she couldn't protect, couldn't control, couldn't help. He's her son, and she loves him with every cell of her body, but know she's made a lot of wrong choices. Maybe if she hadn't... If she'd done things differently, maybe Malcolm wouldn't be so fragile, wouldn't end in hospital so often.

For Ainsley Malcolm has always been an anchor, the one person who is always been there for you, to guide you, to teach you, to help you. No matter what, she knew that if she needed Malcolm he would be there. They didn't always get along and they were very different people, but still... Malcolm was who gave her the strength to be who she was, the support system. She didn't want to imagine a life without him.

For Gil... For Gil this boy meant many things. Someone who had saved him, and someone he was always trying to save. A connection to his late wife, who had loved this boy like a son. An example of how despite a harrowing childhood one could grow into a good person. Malcolm had been his protege, his boy... And he'd let him down.

And for Dani... She usually didn't get this attached, this close to people from work, but Bright... He'd saved her life from a madman very soon after they met each other and there was something really sweet about him, a spark, a genuine caring for others, an incredible effort to be better, to be whole... He was fascinating and had been attentive and kind with her, always taking her into account, always saying interesting things. He was odd but he was also sweet and she wanted them to be friends for long and she wanted to protect him from everything. It was unusual but she'd got attached.

They all loved him in their way and they all hated seeing him like that, pale, unmoving, ill.

As the hours passed, there was only one thought going through their minds, in unison:

Wake up, Malcolm, please wake up. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thought maybe I could do a second part of this? Do tell me if you're interested.
> 
> As always thanks for reading!!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed :) if you did, please leave a comment!!!


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